The meat of the matter for your party platter is diversity

Offer options that differ in texture, flavor

For your New Year's party meat-platter contribution, four unusual cured meats available at only one local spot each — clockwise from bottom: whole smoked Spanish chorizo, bresaola, speck and halal sojouk, center.
Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press

Somebody else has already laid claim to making the cheese platter for your New Year's Eve party? No worrries, you can wow everyone by bringing the cured meat platter (the next guy gets to do the olives, stuffed peppers and pickles.)

We have a great selection of salamis and cured meats around town. A number of stores will slice prosciutto to your specifications, and we have nice selections of Volpi Italian-style sausages from St. Louis and imported sausages as well.

Like a cheese platter, a meat platter should have options that differ in color, texture and flavor. Include some meats which are universally likable and inexpensive such as good summer

sausage, a locally made smoked German bologna, Genoa salami or pepperoni. Pick an air-dried ham such as prosciutto or the Spanish version Serrano ham and add some upscale, aged dry salamis or coppa, large pieces of pork held together with spices in a casing.

If you want to include something a little different that will really make guests comment, we found four unique products around town that each are available in only one place:

Halal Soujouk — Aihua, $8.99 per pound package, made in California.

This Armenian-style beef sausage is dried but needs to be cooked before eating. The package says to cut it in thin coins and fry until crisp on both sides. Cooked this way, it is delicious and adds a wonderful crunchy-edged texture to the meat board; it is good warm or at room temperature. The sausage is very dark-colored, flavored with garlic, lots of cumin and paprika and has a solid tang. It is good for cooking as well and traditionally is fried with eggs for breakfast or used as a sandwich filling. It also is stunning fried with potatoes and onions.

Spanish chorizo is a very different animal from the crumbly Mexican chorizo we are served on our local fajita platters. It is a firm, air-dried and smoked salami ring, colored orange and strongly flavored with paprika, with a mild tang and subtle garlic flavor. Prized for cooking in the traditional Spanish dish paella, it is also wonderful sliced thin and displayed next to Italian salamis for a taste comparison.

Speck — Vecchio's, $19.99 per pound, imported from Italy.

Speck is a northern Italian ham produced in the alpine regions and not nearly as common as prosciutto. The hams or pork shoulders are prepared much the same way as prosciutto, salted and air dried, but they are boned and pressed before drying and are subjected to repeated bouts of cold smoking with pine or juniper that enhances the flavor. Speck can be eaten plain with thinly sliced bread and butter, is typically served with pickles and a blue cheese spread or diced and used in cooking the same way as pancetta or prosciutto.

Bresaola — Vecchio's $24.99 per pound, imported from Italy.

Another prosciutto-like meat, Bresaola is made from the beef eye of round. The lean piece of meat is salted, sometimes coated with spices, netted and air-dried. It has an incredibly rich and tangy flavor and a beautiful ruby-red color. Bresaola never is cooked. It is enjoyed sliced paper-thin and eaten with bread or served very traditionally with arugula, shards of Parmigiano cheese, a splash of olive oil and a lemon wedge. This combination is found everywhere in Rome.